Sports

Rockies bat .152 on poor road trip

Record falls to 54-82 with loss to Arizona

Nolan Arenado reacts after striking out in the fourth inning of the Rockies' 6-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday in Phoenix. (Ralph Freso / Getty Images North America)

PHOENIX — The Rockies struggle to hit on the road.

This is not breaking news, of course, as manager Walt Weiss noted Friday before his team opened a three-game series against the Diamondbacks.

Asked what needs to change to improve the Rockies' production away from Coors Field, Weiss said: "That's the million-dollar question. It's something we've had to deal with in Colorado since we've had a club."

But the 2014 Rockies are drifting toward historically bad territory.

After losing 6-2 to the Diamondbacks on Sunday at Chase Field, the Rockies are hitting .229 on the road this season. That ranks 29th in baseball, ahead of only the Padres, and that average is sliding fast. At the end of July, the Rockies' road batting average was .240.

The worst road batting average in franchise history was .226 in 2010, followed by a .228 average in 1996.

Even when the Rockies get decent starting pitching, as they did Sunday with lefty Jorge De La Rosa on the mound, the punchless offense haunts them. That's a big part of the reason Colorado is 20-49 on the road, a .289 winning percentage that has the club on pace for the worst road record in franchise history.

Weiss has said that his club must improve its two-strike approach and be able to use the whole field, hitting "line to line." He also said: "Our swings can get big, as they have at times. That's when you get exposed on the road."

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Colorado's offense was certainly exposed on the just-completed seven-game road trip. While stumbling to a 2-5 record, the Rockies hit only .152 and were outscored 24-12. They managed seven hits Sunday, but struck out 11 times.

Keep in mind that injuries have deprived the Rockies of their three best veteran hitters: Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez and Michael Cuddyer. That loss of talent puts pressure on other players, and while Corey Dickerson and Nolan Arenado have emerged as promising young hitters, the Rockies' inexperience is being exposed away from LoDo.

Sunday, for the third time in the three-game series, a Diamondbacks starter handled the Rockies. Arizona right-hander Chase Anderson struck out eight in his six crisp innings, including whiffing five in a row in the second and third innings. Anderson allowed five hits and a single run — a solo homer by Charlie Blackmon that led off the fourth. In three career starts against Colorado, Anderson is 3-0 with a 1.50 ERA.

"He put his fastball where he wanted today, then mixed in his occasional changeup," Brandon Barnes said. "He kept us off balance. Then he would sneak in that curveball."

Said Weiss: "Anderson commanded the strike zone, and he had a little more velocity than I remember from the last time we faced him. He stays in good counts and goes back and forth. He works both sides of the plate and doesn't fall into patterns."

The Rockies' only other run Sunday came in the ninth on a sacrifice fly to center by Charlie Culberson. That scored Dickerson, who walked and moved to third base on a double by Barnes.

De La Rosa pitched pretty well, but he certainly wasn't shutdown good as he has been at other times this season. He lost his second consecutive start as the Diamondbacks chipped away for four runs on seven hits in De La Rosa's six-plus innings. The knockout punch was a two-run homer by pinch-hitter Nolan Reimold in the seventh.

"Jorge did a good job," Weiss said. "We were hoping to get through the first three hitters in the seventh, but the first two guys in the inning ended up scoring. At that point I had to go get him. He did what he almost always does; he puts us in a position to win games."

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